Man, 79, admits to sexual crimes against teen

WEST CHESTER – An elderly Phoenixville man who gave a teenage girl small amounts of cash to have sex with him in his car pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that will see him imprisoned for at least 10 years.

And although the discussion during the hearing for Donald Richard Schnovel took its emotional toll on the young girl who suffered at his hands, her reaction was mild compared to that of a middle-aged woman who sat glaring at Schnovel from the front row of Senior Judge Ronald Nagle’s courtroom — at times grimacing at what she heard, at other times weeping uncontrollably.

According to Assistant District Attorney Deborah Ryan, who prosecuted the case against Schnovel and secured a proposed sentence of 10-to-20 years on a series of criminal charges, the woman had been sexually assaulted by Schnovel some 40 years ago.

In 1972, Schnovel, now 79, was convicted on charges of sodomy, endangering a child, and attempting to ravish, Ryan told Nagle during the proceeding. It was not clear from her statement where the offense had taken place or what his sentence was, but the crime’s lasting impact on the woman was clear from her reaction to his guilty plea.

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She stared directly at him almost from the moment he walked into the courtroom, and when he eventually met her gaze she seemed to silently ask whether he recognized her. She wiped tears from her eyes as Ryan described the acts Schnovel had committed against his most recent victim.

Afterward, the blond-haired woman spoke briefly outside the courtroom to the teenage girl Schnovel had victimized on multiple occasions in 2011. “You were so brave for coming forward,” the woman told the girl, giving her a hug. “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

The names of both the teenage girl and the woman are being withheld because of the nature of the cases involved.

Schnovel pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, and single counts of sexual abuse of children, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of children,

Although he could have been sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in state prison for having been a convicted sex offender who victimized a minor, Ryan told Nagle her office had agreed to waive that mandatory sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Schnovel had been set to go to trial on the charges against him Wednesday.

He will be formally sentenced to a term in state prison of 10 to 20 years, plus five years consecutive probation as part of the agreement reached by Ryan and Schnovel’s attorney, Thomas Pitt III of West Chester, after he is evaluated by the state’s Sexual Offender’s Assessment Board to determine whether he is a sexually violent predator.

But Schnovel agreed with Nagle that there was a significant chance he would likely never serve out the probation.

“This sentence may well be for the rest of your life, living in a prison,” Nagle told Schnovel, who appeared physically frail at the proceeding and who has a number of medical difficulties, according to Pitt. “You may die in prison, do you understand that?”

“Yes,” Schnovel answered. “I will.”

According to Ryan, the crimes Schnovel was accused of occurred between May 2011 and September 2011, when Schnovel had become friendly with the girl’s family through their membership at the Grace Bible Church in Phoenixville. She was 14.

Schnovel began socializing with the family outside church, and then began buying clothing and gifts for the girl and her brother, later taking them out to go ice skating, roller skating, horseback riding, or to the movies.

Then on one occasion when they were alone in his Ford Mustang outside a roller skating rink he offered the girl $5 if she would perform oral sex on him, which she did. He also took naked pictures of her with his cell phone and molested her. He later had oral sex with the girl in the parking lot of the Phoenixville Hospital and on the way home from a trip to Dorney Park, both during the summer of 2011. He would give her between $5 and $20 each time, which she used to buy candy, Ryan said.

The incidents came to light in November 2011. Cpl. Patrick Mark of the Phoenixville police department interviewed Schnovel about the accusations against him on three occasions, and he initially denied having any improper contact with the girl. But he later admitted his conduct, and told his son in a taped interview that he had sex with the girl.

“He said that he prays to God every night for what he has done,” Ryan told Nagle.

The guilty plea almost fell apart when Nagle asked Schnovel whether he agreed with the facts as presented by Ryan, and he said he could not acknowledge everything she said. “But I know that it only needs to have one fact be true for me to get 25 years,” he said.

Ryan, however, demanded that Schnovel admit to the entire factual history she laid out, and Nagle said he would not accept the guilty plea unless he did so. “You have to admit that you are guilty of the crimes based on the facts placed on the record,” the judge said.

“I plead guilty to all of them, sir,” Schnovel said.

The teenage victim in the case did not address Nagle during the one-hour hearing, and had to leave the courtroom briefly during the proceedings to compose herself.

Formal sentencing is expected to take place within 90 days, after which Schnovel will be taken to state prison to begin serving his sentence.